


Cold Nights, Hot Nights

by whisperbird



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, I'm tired of tagging characters, everyone's in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 18:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperbird/pseuds/whisperbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kids of the 104th trainee squad find themselves bored on a chilly night. The only solution is truth or dare. The only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Nights, Hot Nights

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for SNK! Yes yes yes. (Ignore a few typos; this is 2 am fic and I might spot them better in the morrow.)

There were better things to do on a cold night. Cold nights weren’t like restless summer nights, with the sticky heat that lingered long after the sun. Summer felt exciting, with the long days and hot nights. Winter felt sluggish, and wrapping in a warm blanket with a book was what Armin felt was a good winter activity.

He would’ve been doing precisely that had it been a little more peaceful in the cabin; the sun set too early, lights out too far away. Armin never knew the meaning of _cabin fever_ as acutely as now; it was too cold to really go outside, even stand for a few minutes. It wasn’t snowing, but it wasn’t long off from doing so. Truth be told, Armin felt he needed something to rush the blood to his head and hands, but the only thing he’d done was stretch his legs and rest his book on his face, listening in the new dark to the sounds of his fellow cabin mates.

“No, no, no,” Connie was saying. “It’s not childish. If you’ve ever played it you’d know it gets pretty interesting if you go long enough.”

“I’m too old for games,” said Jean.

“Yeah, that’s only something little kids say,” said Connie, and Armin, under the veil of the printed page, couldn’t see his face but the sneer in his voice painted a vivid enough image.

“How is that a thing for little kids to say?”

“Because little kids are the only ones who prove they’re too grown up for games.” Armin peeked out of his book and saw Connie hold up three fingers out of the corner of his eye. “It’s like stages, you know? When you’re a kid, games are fun. Then you get older and they’re really lame and I think we’re old enough that they’re fun again.”

“Wow, that’s … actually a pretty good observation.” Reiner slid his arm from behind his head to prop his jaw on his fist, elbow sinking into the mattress. “I’ll play.”

Jean looked skeptical and rolled his eyes.

“You should know how to have fun, Jean,” Marco said, gently. “I’m in.”

“Really?”

“Really.”  Marco smiled, that smile that always seemed so understanding but now he was showing his teeth, and looked sly. It was an amusing look on Marco, and Jean smiled despite himself. Watching Jean lose a little composure due to Marco was always an interesting thing to watch, Armin thought.

“Fine!” He held up his hands, a gesture of surrender and rolled his eyes again.

“Okay,” said Reiner. He pointed, and mouthed to himself, counting the amount of players. “We need some more guys. I’m in, Connie’s in, Jean, Marco. Bert.”

“Bert didn’t say he was in!” Connie folded his arms. “He’s probably not gonna-“

“He’s in,” said Reiner, nodding.

“I’m in,” said Bertholdt, with a light shrug. He gave a small wave when Connie continued to stare.

“Did you really think Reiner would play a game without Bert or the other way around?” Jean asked.

Marco and Connie both laughed, good-naturedly, but Reiner and Bertholdt both looked a bit embarrassed; Reiner cut off the laughing by calling over their shoulders to Armin and Eren’s bunk. Eren had been pretending to be asleep since Jean said he would play with them.

“Eren! Are you joining in? Armin?”

“Of course I am!” Eren yelled in Armin’s ear, Armin hoping Eren didn’t notice him cringing.

Eren lifted the book off Armin’s face. “Are you gonna play too?” Armin blinked in the light, looking up at the face of Eren, who looked as though “no” wasn’t an option.

The expectant faces of the other boys came into view as Armin sat up. “Well,” he replied, feeling a little worried, “it’s not going to be that fun if there’s not … at least one girl …”

He’d said it as an aside, trying to get them to perhaps reconsider a game. Armin did want something else to do, but making an ass of himself in front of everyone wasn’t exactly fun. A thirst for adventure was close to Armin’s heart but not at the expense of humiliation. Books versus embarrassment? Books. Books always.

Instead, everyone in the room erupted into laughter. Armin felt his face burning.

“Oh!” said Connie. “We’re gonna have that kind of game, huh!”

 _So much for making an ass of himself_. Eren gave a big grin and said, “I’ll go get Mikasa! And see if anyone else wants to sneak over!” He climbed over Armin, elbowing him in the ribs accidentally, as Armin sat propped on his arms helplessly.

Jean opened his mouth at the mention of Mikasa, closed his mouth and thought better of it. He looked pleadingly at Marco who looked away, a ghost of a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry,” said Armin, trying to not feel awkward. “I—“

“No, no,” said Reiner, “it’ll be more fun this way. Girls answer truths a lot more than they answer dares anyway, so don’t worry about anyone being too sadistic.”

“Speak for yourself,” muttered Connie, looking at the door Eren had left ajar, a trace of worry lingering on his face.

*

“And Ymir, what a surprise!”

Ymir turned around and had almost made it to the door before Christa grabbed her arm. “You said you were bored!” They stared each other down for another second before Ymir scoffed. “Not bored enough to be annoyed by a bunch of little apes.”

“We’re not gonna find anything else to do, even if they are a bunch of little … apes …” Christa turned around and gave a gentle “don’t worry, I’m placating the beast” smile at the rest of them, or that’s how Armin read it.

“Fine, fine, fine, whatever, okay, what the hell,” said Ymir.  She cast a side-long look at Connie, who kept his mouth shut this time.

“Ymir, Christa, Mikasa and Sasha. No Annie, Mina, Hannah –“

“Did you really think Annie was going to come?” Reiner said with a chuckle. “Mina probably didn’t come because Annie didn’t come.”

“Franz isn’t here either, so wherever Franz is Hannah is,” said Marco, looking around. A subtle, understated “ooooh” moved through the barracks. Armin saw Reiner mouth, “someone’s getting lucky.”

“We could ask Thomas.”

“Thomas is asleep.”

“We could ask Dazz—“ Marco started.

“ _Let’s play the damn game_!” said Connie, in a deep, guttural voice, his teeth jutting out.

“See, apes,” said Ymir, looking at Christa.

Christa ignored this, and instead asked Connie how they were going to start. Birthdays? Ages?

“Counter-clockwise,” said Connie, pounding a fist on the wooden cabin floor. Armin saw as Christa pinched Ymir to hold off another comment.

“Sasha,” said Connie suddenly. He made a steeple of his fingers. Armin could tell he was enjoying the power. “Truth or dare?”

Sasha looked like a small animal trapped in a sudden light. “Um, um …” She wrinkled her brow and then nodded determinedly. “Truth!”

“Who here would you kiss?”

Sasha looked scandalized. “Too soon! Not fair!”

There was a rousing chorus of, “Gotta do it!” “Can’t take back!” and then “Make her do a dare!”

“Say, that’s not a bad idea,” said Connie, almost comically stroking his chin. “Okay, _dare_ , Sasha.”

“This is not fair,” Sasha protested. “I said truth.”

“All right, truth. How did you get a potato smuggled in on the first day?”

Everyone looked at Mikasa, who had said this so quietly, a few people leaning around each other to look at her.

“No one’s gonna let me live that down, are they?” Sasha groaned. “I … pretended I was a hunter and I was stalking the prey.” Her face reddened at the roar of laughter that met this statement. Armin believed her; she’d come from the forest, hadn’t she? As silly as it was, this was a good strategy for skulking about.

“Well, that’s how I did it! I can be pretty sneaky!” Sasha looked at her hands for a brief second before looking at Connie head-on. “Connie, _truth or dare_.”

“What!”

“Mikasa is next to you, and since I answered Mikasa, we’ve changed direction.”

“What!”

“She’s right,” said Reiner, hitting Connie on the back in a way that was meant to be encouraging.

“Armin, you’re smart,” said Connie, turning to face him. “Tell ‘em they’re going from the wrong direction!”

“Not really, they’re right,” said Armin, feeling very little sympathy for the one who’d instigated all this. He shrugged apologetically, however.

“Dare!” Connie bellowed, turning back to Sasha.

“Take off your pants,” said Sasha. She squinted at the window, where the wind was rattling the panes every so often. “No wait, go outside and stand _outside_ in your underwear.” She looked unyielding and not at all embarrassed to be asking her friend to practically strip. The feeling of revenge was strong in the room.

“It’s freezing!” Connie said, and Armin wondered if the thought of being half-naked in front of his friends was the least of his worries.

“Two minutes!” said Sasha.

“You sadist!”

“Two minutes!” said Reiner, and then Marco and Jean joined in, all chanting.

“You’re all a bunch of assholes!”

“Get going,” said Ymir, relishing this moment obviously. She clapped her hands in a way that made Connie look as though he wanted to kill her.

Connie inhaled deeply and unbuckled his pants, marching stiffly toward the door. Offense was present in every inch of his body.

*

It took thirty seconds before he ran back to the door, tripping slightly from his pants around his knees. Everyone joined in to barricade the door until the countdown to the next minute and a half was finished.

“I love this kind of camaraderie,” said Ymir 

 Armin did feel sorry for him when he came back in, lips slightly blue.

“You could’ve killed me, Sasha,” he said coolly. He stalked back to his spot. “Eren, you’re next to Mikasa, dare someone.”

“Counter-clockwise is confusing,” said Jean and Armin had to agree. How were they all going to get a turn that way? What if everyone kept daring the same person?

“Okay, okay, then I get to truth/dare someone, but it can’t be Sasha,” Connie sighed. Nods of agreement settled the matter.

“Eren, truth or dare.”

“Truth!” said Eren, and widening his eyes, almost challenged anyone to call him weak. Armin admired his determination, after the Sasha Fiasco.

“Good answer.” Mikasa pushed her scarf over her mouth and watched Connie anxiously as Eren did.

“If everyone’s gonna do truth—“ Jean started.

Connie cut him off. “What’s the grossest, nastiest thing you’ve ever done?”

Eren looked at Mikasa and Armin could tell what they were thinking. Obviously, Eren wasn’t going to say it, but this was light-hearted fun, so nothing serious here was needed.

“I ate a whole stick of butter,” he said, at last.

Everyone groaned.

“That was stupid,” scoffed Jean. “Why would you eat a stick of butter?” He looked at Armin. “Did he _really_?”

Armin vaguely recalled it, and Eren getting in trouble for wasting food. He also seemed to recall Eren doing it because of some suggestion no one could eat a whole stick of butter without throwing up and Eren adamantly saying _anything_ was possible. The follies of youth. They must’ve been really bored that day.

Eren cleared his throat and looked at Jean. “Truth or dare,” he said, folding his arms. The gauntlets had been thrown down, Armin felt. This was no mere game anymore. They would be soldiers one day and this was but one of their battles.

“Truth,” said Jean, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you real—“ started Marco. He saw the look on Eren’s face, even if Jean didn’t. Eren was out for blood, as he always was, if Armin was honest.

“What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?” Eren asked, as coldly as one could ask such a question.

*

After the laughter had settled down and Jean had almost stopped blushing, Connie tried waving his hands for order, having regained some traction as Jean was now the embarrassed one.

Marco snorted, then Reiner. Even Bertholdt was smiling a little. “It’s funny again, hold on,” said Reiner and everyone started shrieking again.

“I’m so sorry,” Marco whispered as Jean looked hard at him, mouth a thin line. The corners of Mikasa’s eyes had turned up, and she looked determined to remain stoic, for Jean. Armin knew the extent of Mikasa’s mercy was for Eren’s sake; if she laughed, Eren would feel the brunt of Jean’s wrath. Some day, but he’d feel it.

“So okay, okay,” said Reiner, “we have to go over it again, because _damn_ if this wasn’t a good answer. You grabbed the lady’s ass?”

“I thought she was my mom, okay!” Jean pushed his face into his hands.

“Why would you grab your mom’s ass?” Connie asked.

“I- … I was going for her pocket!” Jean said, his voice muffled in his hands. “I was trying to grab her skirt pocket.”

“I can’t handle this,” said Ymir, who was laughing almost as loud as Reiner. “We gotta stop for a second.”

“Truth or dare, Ymir!” Jean yelled, in some desperate attempt to regain control.

“Dare!” Ymir yelled back, leaning on a giggling Christa for support.

“Kiss Christa,” he said, looking serious.

“Sure,” Ymir replied, looking unfazed.

“No, you can’t enjoy it,” said Jean. “I’m changing your dare.”

Ymir made a loud noise of protest before Jean said, “You have to sit still for an entire minute while Christa tickles you.” Reiner raised his eyebrows.

Ymir coughed and Christa turned towards her, almost predatory. “Don’t look so excited, Christa, jeez,” said Ymir and became still, as Christa ran her fingers down her ribs. She tried to move as Christa’s fingers danced down her stomach.

“I didn’t know you were _this_ ticklish,” said Christa, obviously without thinking.

“You know she’s ticklish though,” muttered Connie, with a smile, an almost perverted one if Armin had to put a word to it.

No one rose to the bait, but the suggestion was there. Armin could practically hear everyone considering when and how Christa had tickled Ymir.

After a minute of squirming, Christa was finally done, and everyone was giggling softly, trying to not catch Ymir’s eyes. A very faint blush had spread across Ymir’s freckled face. She looked mutinous and spared no time before turning on Reiner.

“Truth or dare, you fuck,” she said.

“Dare.”

She smiled, relishing this moment, apparently.

“I was going to ask you to lick Bertholdt’s toes, but I don’t want you to like your dare too much,” she said casually.

Reiner didn’t protest until she continued: “Lick your own toes.”

Reiner didn’t look as amused anymore.

“Consequences,” said Ymir. “If you don’t do it.”

“You can’t –“

“That’s how the game is _really_ played. Isn’t that right, Christa?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Christa, smiling sweetly.

“Christa, no …” said Reiner, under his breath.

“Consequence is Bertholdt has to lick your toes,” said Ymir, talking over Reiner.  “I think that’s fair.”

“Sorry, not playing into your fetish,” Reiner replied, looking uncomfortable.

It took a heavy load of objecting, but for a man who was determined to stand by his convictions, Reiner quailed under everyone’s protests.

“Be a man,” said Connie, as Reiner removed his sock, and looking directly at Ymir, gave his smallest toe a quick swipe with his tongue.

“I didn’t really think you’d do it,” said Eren, obviously impressed.

“I didn’t know you could actually lift your leg that far sitting like you are,” said Jean, almost impressed.

“This game is teaching us so much about ourselves,” Marco mused. “Not even just truths, but we’re learning our limits …”

Reiner reached his unsocked foot at Ymir, trying to touch her with it to her noticeable vexation.

*

Ultimately, Armin thought, they had learned very much about themselves. They learned Marco was allergic to cats (a lame deflect made by Jean, trying to save Marco some embarrassment.) They learned Christa couldn’t give a piggyback ride to Ymir without them both toppling over in a laughing heap. They learned Bertholdt could make a sound with his hands like someone breaking wind (“Do the fart thing,” said Reiner, as his way of a dare.) They learned Mikasa would not dare Eren and as the blood began to rush to his head and he felt dizzy, he learned he could, in fact, stand on his head.

“Okay,” said Connie, from upside down. “Minute’s up.”

Armin tipped over and landed on the floor in a limp heap.

“Sorry,” said Mikasa. “Are you okay?”

Armin gave her a weak smile, glad it was _only_ Mikasa that had dared him.

He had thought he’d wanted to feel the blood in his hands again, and he guessed standing precariously on top of his hands against a wall was the best way to do it. He didn’t have much feeling in them now, however.

“Are we done?” asked Ymir.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sleepy,” said Sasha. “All in favor of sleep, raise your hand.”

“Hey, hey,” said Connie, annoyed at the attempts at a bipartisan take-over of the game.

Armin shook his sore hands as everyone stumbled off to their respective bunks, the girls following Sasha, who swore if they stuck behind her she could sneak them back in without anyone knowing.

Armin himself collapsed into bed, the cabin turning slightly colder as the night went on. He was glad to be in bed. It was right before lights out, and usually his mind kept him awake. So much activity before bed; he didn’t think he’d have trouble falling asleep tonight, or at least he hoped.

Eren yelled to Mikasa to share her scarf if they didn’t make it to the cabin in the cold and _not to die_ and slid down next to Armin on his bed. It had begun to faintly snow outside; small bits of white floating past the window against the dark sky that Armin could see from his side of the bed.

“What a night!” said Eren, and yawned, Armin instinctively yawning as well. “Did you remember me eating that butter?” he asked, his voice lowered, so the other boys couldn’t hear. “We were such stupid kids.”

“We were happy kids,” Armin corrected. “We _thought_ we weren’t.”

“No one is ever content,” said Eren, turning over. It was an astute observation and a true one.

Armin felt for the most part that being with his comrades was the most content he’d felt in a long time. He knew he’d give anything one day for a night where they could all relax again like this. He knew one day he’d long to hear everyone’s laughter, and petty arguments. He’d long for feeling like this -- disgusting dares and awkwardness and _all_.

He watched the snow until he fell asleep.


End file.
